Introduction
Drug Lords and Cartels have always fascinated me. They are almost like parallel Governments – run professionally, but far more ruthlessly. It all started with Alcohol and prohibition.
Alcohol and narcotics are addictive or habit forming drugs. These have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. They were used for addiction, but in insignificant quantities. In modern times, addiction to them has become a source of major concern to most countries, far more to the developed ones.
The illegal traffic in narcotic drugs generates huge amounts of money. This money is used to bribe, corrupt, threaten and even kill politicians and government officials. This has given rise to drug lords like Al Capone, Khun Sa, Chao Nyi Lai, Bao Youxiang, Lao Ta Saenlee, Wei Hsueh-kang, Hajji Bashir Noorzai of Afghanistan, General Noriega, Pablo Escobar, Griselda Blanco the Queenpin, Félix Gallardo of Mexico, Joaquín El Chapo Guzman, Ng Sik-ho, Tse Chi Lop and many others. They have also created drug cartels like the Medellin and Cali Cartels, Sinaloa Cartel. Brazil has entered the field rather late. The drug lords are filthy rich, totally ruthless and wield enormous power. They can get any one - including the police, military and the judiciary - attacked and killed.
At the same time, since the fight against narcotic drugs is being tackled at the International levels, a large portion of the illegal money has to be laundered to hide the source of money creating innumerable problems necessitating ingenious solutions.
Many of the Drug Lords have cultivated a Robin Hood type of image often helping the poor and needy. Their stories have been converted into block buster movies and TV serials. Best seller books have been written about them.
The developed countries are spending huge sums of money and resources to fight the menace – to stop production of various drugs; to catch and punish the producers, distributors and retailers; and to treat and rehabilitate the habituated. The fight against narcotic drugs is one of the foremost social priorities in such countries as the U.S. and Europe.
India is not lagging behind. The seizure, and therefore the import of drugs into India, have increased manifold over the recent years. Drugs have become a serious problem. And this requires far more and far greater efforts for stopping the trade, catching and punishing the guilty and treating the addicted.
On 15 September 2021, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), India seized two containers at Mundra Port in Gujarat on the basis of secret intelligence information that they contained narcotics.
The containers had originated from Afghanistan after takeover of the country by the Taliban on 15 August 2021. The cargo had been shipped from Bandar Abbas Port in Iran to Mundra Port, Gujarat. The cargo had been declared as semi-processed talc stones from Afghanistan. The containers had been imported by a firm in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. The narcotics were headed towards New Delhi. Two persons were arrested in connection with the seizure. Investigations were taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and are in progress.
The DRI officials recovered 2,988 kg (6,590 pounds) of heroin worth an estimated Rs. 21,000 crores. This is the biggest haul of narcotics in India to date. It is not known whether this was the first consignment or more had entered through the port earlier.
The Opium Poppy has been cultivated in India at least since the 15th century. When the Mughal Empire was on the decline, the British East India Company assumed monopoly over the cultivation of opium poppy. By 1873, the entire trade was brought under government control.
After India gained independence, the cultivation and trade of opium passed on to the Indian government. The activity was controlled by The Opium Act, 1857, The Opium Act, 1878, and The Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930. At present, the cultivation and processing of poppy and opium is controlled by the provisions of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Rules.
Due to the potential for illicit trade and risk of addiction, cultivation of opium poppy is strictly regulated in India. The crop is allowed to be sown only in tracts of land notified by the central government in 22 districts in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
The cultivation of opium poppy is strictly monitored by the government through satellite images to check for illicit cultivation. Once the crop is ready, the Government officials have a formula on how much the yield should be. This entire quantity is then purchased by the government and processed entirely at the Government Opium and Alkaloid Factories in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh and Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh. Morphine, codeine, thebaine, and oxycodone are produced from the opium poppy. Despite being one of the few global cultivators of poppy, India still imports these active pharmaceutical ingredients as well as poppy seeds, which is also consumed as a food item in the country.
India has opened up the highly regulated sector of producing and processing opium to private players. Under a trial phase, Bajaj Healthcare Ltd. based in Thane, Maharashtra is the first company to win tenders for producing concentrated poppy straw that is used to derive alkaloids that are the active pharmaceutical ingredient in pain medication and cough syrups. The Government will provide the poppy straw. Bajaj Healthcare Ltd. will process 6,000 MT of unopened poppy capsules and opium gum in its factory in Savli, near Vadodara to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients over the next five years. On 23 November, 2022, Bajaj Healthcare Limited announced the inauguration of new production line for Processing of Opium at Savli, Gujarat, India and commencement of the trial run for the same.
The government has roped in the private sector to boost the domestic production of various alkaloids such as morphine and codeine which are still imported. This would also mean reduction in imports. The move is also aimed at offsetting the declining area under cultivation of poppy in India in 2017 and 2019. This could be Rs. 1000 crore business with more future potential.
In this small book, I have written about alcohol and different addictive drugs; given a brief idea of some of the biggest drug lords and drug cartels; mentioned
the efforts made at the International levels to curb trafficking in drugs and touched the narcotic laws with reference to India.
Alcohol & Al Capone
Alcohol is the oldest and most widely used addictive drug. Today alcohol is used in almost all festivities in the Western world. The reason for its wide use is its ease of production. When any sugary juice, including the juice of fruits, is left in warm air for a few days, yeasts which are present in the atmosphere, ferment it into alcoholic beverage.
Man also learnt that when starchy cereals, like maize, were chewed and spit into water, the amylase present in the saliva converted the starch into sugar, and yeasts in the atmosphere fermented the sugar into alcohol.
The Chinese were making a kind of wine from rice, honey, and fruit 9,000 years ago. We find details of the use of alcoholic beverages, and the consequences of habitual intoxication in our own ‘Ayurveda’, written 5000 years ago. We find prescriptions for preparing beer written by Sumerian physicians on clay tablets almost 4000 years ago.
In India toddy or palm wine is quite common all over the country. It is taken as either neera or patanīr (a sweet, non-alcoholic beverage derived from fresh sap), or kallu (a sour beverage made from fermented sap. The alcoholic content in the fermented beverage is between 3% to 6% - about the strength of beer, but not as strong as wine.
The process of fermentation by which sugars are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide continues only till the sugar content is exhausted or until the level of alcohol reaches 14% by volume. Once this concentration is reached, the yeasts cannot survive, and fermentation stops.
Around 800 B.C., an Arab Jabir Ibn Hayyan (Born: c. 721 Died: c. 815) developed the art of distillation. Thereafter, it became possible to prepare more concentrated and potent alcoholic drinks.
Country Liquor or Indian-made Indian liquor (IMIL) or Desi daroo is a category of liquor made in the countryside of the Indian subcontinent. It is fermented and distilled from molasses, a bye product of sugarcane. They are traditionally prepared by a procedure that has been passed down for centuries. Due to cheap prices, country liquor is the most popular alcoholic beverage among the impoverished people. It includes both legally and illegally made local alcohol.
It is estimated that nearly two-thirds of the alcohol consumed in India is country liquor. Since country liquor is cheaper than other spirits, there are reports of mixing country liquor with Scotch/English whisky in many bars in India.
If care is not taken in the distillation process and proper equipment is not used, harmful impurities such as fusel alcohols, lead from plumbing solder, and methanol rise to toxic levels. Several deaths are reported in India due to consumption of non-factory made toxic liquor.
The State of Goa, India has its own indigenous alcoholic liquor Feni (also called fenno or fenny). The two most popular types of feni are Cashew Feni and Coconut Feni, depending on the ingredients used in distillation. However, several other varieties and newer blends are available. Feni is rather strong having alcoholic content between 42% to 45% by volume.
History shows that almost every society tolerates at least one addictive drug
The same society despises drugs tolerated by other soc
